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I am behind a firewall... but I have no idea what the rest of your sentence means. Lol. If anyone could elaborate that'd be great.

Bittorrent is a give-and-take system, that is, the more you share, the faster you're able to download. So, you have to set your router's firewall to allow your machine to act as a server. Sitting behind a firewall, your machine is blocked from sending, so you get very little bandwidth in return from Bittorrent.

There are a number of tutorials for configuring your firewall (Google the terms: Configure, Firewall, Bittorrent). Here's an example.

Thanks for everyone's advice. I tried following a set of instructions specifically for my router (it's a Netgear MR814) - but I was altering settings on my Macbook Pro, which is not the computer that the router is connected to. I realised half-way through that that seemed a bit stupid. Should I be doing the altering on the computer that is connected to the router? I'm a bit confused. I tried to set up a static IP address as instructed, but on my MBP, and when I did it, I could no longer connect to the internet. Tried to change it back to the way the settings were originally and it told me that Airport was connected to my wireless network but that it didn't have an IP address and therefore couldn't connect to the internet. It took me a surprisingly long time to figure out that all I had to do was run the Airport setup assistant to get back online, so had a bit of a panic there. I did have a read through some of the introductory material on forwarding ports, etc, but to be honest I find it all a little confusing. The computer that I have my router connected to is an old iMac running OS 9. Should I be changing the settings on that, and would it work the same way with OS 9?

Thanks for everyone's advice. I tried following a set of instructions specifically for my router (it's a Netgear MR814) - but I was altering settings on my Macbook Pro, which is not the computer that the router is connected to. I realised half-way through that that seemed a bit stupid. Should I be doing the altering on the computer that is connected to the router? I'm a bit confused. I tried to set up a static IP address as instructed, but on my MBP, and when I did it, I could no longer connect to the internet. Tried to change it back to the way the settings were originally and it told me that Airport was connected to my wireless network but that it didn't have an IP address and therefore couldn't connect to the internet. It took me a surprisingly long time to figure out that all I had to do was run the Airport setup assistant to get back online, so had a bit of a panic there. I did have a read through some of the introductory material on forwarding ports, etc, but to be honest I find it all a little confusing. The computer that I have my router connected to is an old iMac running OS 9. Should I be changing the settings on that, and would it work the same way with OS 9?

Thanks again!

The settings need to be changed on your router's configuration page. See your router manual for details on how to access its configuration page.

Yes, I realise that, and have managed to access my router page successfully, but what about the static IP address? Should I be setting that up on my MBP or the iMac that the router is connected to? Or both?

Or does a static IP address actually have to be set up? Once I managed to get my internet access working again, I still had the ports set (to 12700) on both my router configuration page and in BitTorrent. I didn't notice much difference in speed though, so I don't know whether that's all I have to do or if there's more.

Or does a static IP address actually have to be set up? Once I managed to get my internet access working again, I still had the ports set (to 12700) on both my router configuration page and in BitTorrent. I didn't notice much difference in speed though, so I don't know whether that's all I have to do or if there's more.

You probably won't start to notice a substantial speed increase until you're sharing some files in your Bittorrent directory. The idea behind Bittorrent is to avoid "leeches", people who take but don't give. So, the more you give, the more you can take. Does that make sense?

I have changed the settings accordingly. I have to admit that I don't tend to seed an awful lot, if I am not downloading something myself - ie I don't keep the application open especially. Other than leaving files open once they have finished downloading for me, is there another way to share files (without actually making torrents myself, I mean)? I can't say I have noticed an improvement in speed since forwarding the ports, etc.